Cont'd...
The reason why I bring this kind of an incident up is because Goodell is constantly doing things to get a certain results based on where the money needs to go. He's not dumb. With Gruden's lawsuit and Congress all over him, hopefully his time is up. The NFL thinks they are above US law, but they're really not. Shaping games is still illegal and that's clearly what he does. I can tell before a game starts what team the NFL wants to win and why. Then you watch the game and you see the calls and WHEN they occur. It's very easy to spot. This is why the rules are written with such a lawyeresque grey area. It gives the refs options. Yep.
Even MLB, as well as they do, don't do this. They have proper replay, they get it right, they don't act all arrogant like their refs are perfect and they don't coach on air former refs to shill for the awful call on the field either. That's another thing Goodell does to insult our intelligence. The dipshits like Blandino, Steratore, the bald tolbag that NBC uses now where he outright lies to the viewer on live tv. It's brutal. The best is when the announcers go quiet in awkward silence and/or CBS doesn't even show you the replay because it's so bad and they want to hide it.
I've been watching the NFL closely since I was 5 years old and it was never, ever like this. They hide behind the guise of "safety" and protecting the players, but really, it's a ruse to be able to shape games for financial gain and get ratings. The NFL has interests in certain markets being more successful than others, and they want a balance of winning spread throughout the league. We all know it only takes 1 play to change a game or win/lose it, and even just 1 penalty or lack thereof can extend or stall a drive to win or lose a game.
Whether you want to believe it or not, it's why our team was framed for things that aren't true. The Pats domination was simply bad for the revenue potential especially off that last 2011 CBA where owners thought Kraft gave the union too much, which is hilarious to think about. I'd hate to have seen the previous 2011 CBA deal the union refused to sign.
I mean, has your team ever been flagged in a game, in OT, because they missed a FG, only to have a rule changed during the game, only to see that change adjusted in the rules in real time to match a call on the field? I mean, that happened to our team in OT vs the Jets in 2013. Folk missed a FG, they made up a call on Chris Jones. Dean Blandino was caught on NFL.com rushing in the rule change and screwing that up, where he had to pull it down, change the wording of the rule ("wordsmithing" - Jeff Pash), so it matches what the incorrect call was on the field:
The Patriots lost to the Jets on Sunday as a direct result of the application of a new rule prohibiting the pushing of defensive players during field goal attempts by other defensive players.
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
The worst is the flags that get picked up after someone comes in the ref circle and reminds another ref of their orders before the game and it's the guy who through the flag himself:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zss8xNJ-BrU
^^Everyone knows you can't impede a receiver to come back on the ball. If NE wins the games in NY and Carolina, they host Denver in 2013 instead of going to Denver and we know how bad Manning is less than perfect weather.
These are just 2 examples that jump out of the top of my head along with the wrong call in SB 52 vs the Eagles where it's clear they didn't follow their own rules of what a catch is and isn't:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RvfdbhQ5tk
^Clement shifts the ball after Flower's perfect textbook position, forces him to do it, and the ball jostles and Clement switches arms, with only 1 foot down. You know it's bad when both announcers are aghast in real time. Before this SB, Goodell said they were going to alter the rule a bit, but he actually changed the rule DURING the game. This is not a catch in 1982 nor is it a catch in February of 2018. Showing control and 2 feet has always been the rule.
It's one thing to have a questionable PI call that could go either way, a missed hold, but the phantom calls to get a team back in the game has been going on for 15 years and used to never happen in the NFL in the Rozelle and Tagliabue eras. Those kinds of calls are going to happen, but when I see phantom holds (this happens almost weekly to our team on long runs or TDs), along with Matt Judon held or armbarred on almost every snap, I kinda smile and shake my head and wonder if Goodell will win. I am thrilled when he doesn't.
How about the 4th and 2 in Indy? What a doozy that was. The ref doesn't know about forward progress and marks Faulk a full yard and half shy of where he had the ball trapped to his chest and possession for a clear first down. He actually marked him where he landed, not where he had clear possession and final forward progress. The side judge actually runs out to mark it a first, and then moves it back a full yard and a half shy. Almost like he had a realization what he needed to do. That was a classic Goodell move of "Hi, I want the AFC playoffs to go through Indy because Manning can't win in the outdoors in Foxborugh" move. Classic.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7wY2dHdzSw
^He clearly does a tip trap up against his chest at the 30. He didn't juggle it. He tapped it once to his chest because he knew he was going to get drilled. It's actually a hell of a play that is now seen as something else in the annals of NFL history.
^And, the beauty of all of these things including the framejobs to steal draft picks from our team? No one is going to feel sorry for the Pats, so these things are so easily swept under the rug. It's true. Goodell could send a ref onto the field and take out Brady at the knees with a shovel and they'd find a way to make it seem normal with 99% of the league accepting it.
Your Buffalo teams never had this garbage. Never. Your teams were seen as AFC royalty to promote the league because the AFC was clearly weaker than the NFC at that time.
It's not like my memory sucks and I can't remember the shift from when these kinds of things rarely happened, and now their weekly occurrences in almost every game because Goodell wants certain outcomes for financial gain. As long as he thinks he can get away with shaping games, he'll continue to do it because it's clear the financial reward is tangible for the league.
As Pats fans, I think what we forget is our teams were so great in the BB/Brady Era that our team would fight through a lot of these and end up winning the game, and then everyone would forget about the ones that happened in those games, so it only appears like these don't happen on the regular.
Back in the 90s you guys had awesome teams. I remember vividly just sitting there like I did watching the 80s 9ers being depressed our teams would never get to that point because of our ownership. Fast forward 25 years and our ownership is so incredible, with such jealousy, apparently it's normal for the NFL to think we should be punished for it. Buffalo didn't have Tagliabue running around trying to slow down the Bills. Never happened.
Feel free to post some bagjob games that went against Buffalo from 1990-1993, as I think you'll have a very difficult time finding some.